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Scripture Reading: Rom. 12:4-6a, 7a; Eph. 4:7; 1 Pet. 4:10; John 1:17b; 1 Cor. 15:10; 2 Cor. 12:9
I. All the members of the Body of Christ being gifted — Rom. 12:6a.
II. Every member having been given grace — Eph. 4:7; Rom. 12:6b.
III. All the members being stewards of the varied grace of God — 1 Pet. 4:10.
IV. The service in the church being the function of the members with grace.
V. Grace being God embodied in Christ as our enjoyment — John 1:17b; 1 Cor. 15:10.
VI. To serve in the church being to minister Christ as grace to others:
А. First, we need to experience the grace of Christ in our own circumstances — 2 Cor. 12:9.
B. Then we minister grace to others through our service.
VII. The goal of our service:
А. Not to accomplish things.
B. But to infuse others with Christ as grace.
In this lesson we want to see the grace-ministering service. Romans 12:4-6a says that grace is given to every member and that every member has a gift. Ephesians 4:7 says that to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Then 1 Peter 4:10 tells us that we have to be good stewards of the varied grace of God. John 1:17b shows us that grace is Christ Himself coming as the embodiment of God for our enjoyment. In 1 Corinthians 15:10 Paul says, “I labored more abundantly...yet not I but the grace of God which is with me.” Then in 2 Corinthians 12:9 the Lord told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.”
Romans 12:6a says that we all have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us. This shows that all the members of the Body of Christ are gifted. We have to impress the saints with this. They may know that all the members of the Body of Christ are gifted, but they do not use their gift.
According to Ephesians 4:7 and Romans 12:6b, every member has been given grace. We need to read these two verses to the saints repeatedly in order to impress them that all of them have been given grace. In this lesson what is needed is mainly to impress the saints. They may know some of these points, but they have never been impressed with them.
According to 1 Peter 4:10, all the members are stewards of the varied, or manifold, grace of God. On this point we need much speaking. This is not a common thought to all the saints. God’s grace is not only of one aspect; it has manifold aspects. The Pentecostals think that grace is just to speak in tongues. If you do not speak in tongues, you do not have grace. To those who are for healing, grace is a miracle. If you do not have miracles, you do not have grace. But the New Testament shows us that to serve the saints with a cup of cold water is also an aspect of grace. To clean the meeting hall and prepare the chairs for the saints to sit on is another aspect of grace. If a brother is very bothered by a certain situation, and I go to pray with him, that is still another aspect of grace. God’s grace is manifold. We can illustrate this point to the saints in many ways.
The church is the best society and has the best communal life. In such a society with such a communal life, there is the need of many kinds of services. Every service is an aspect of grace ministered by the saints to one another. Thus, all the saints as members of the Body of Christ are stewards of the manifold grace of God. On the one hand, we are members of the Body of Christ, and on the other hand, we are stewards of God. Stewards are persons who have the commission to minister the rich supply to others. A steward is one who always supplies others with certain needs, so we have to help the saints realize that every brother and every sister today in the church life as a member of Christ should be a steward of God assigned by God, commissioned by God, charged by God, with some aspect of His grace to minister to others for their supply.
One brother, whom I knew for about thirty years and who is now with the Lord, is a good example of this grace-ministering service. He did not speak much in the meetings because he was not assigned with that kind of grace. But whenever I went to his locality in Taiwan, I always saw him serving in some way in the meeting hall. He was a retired general from the army who lived on his pension and spent all his time to serve the church. Even though he did not speak much in the meetings, the church received the greatest service from him. He was respected by all the saints and highly valued by the co-workers because of his service. He served the saints in many ways to meet their needs.
Of course, we expect that all the brothers and sisters would function by opening their mouth to speak in the meetings. But we do not like to force the saints to do this, because some do not have the particular portion of grace to be speakers. If you ask certain ones to function, it is like putting them into a coffin. We should not do this. To some extent, we have to make this clear publicly. We can say that we realize that some of the saints do not have a speaking portion, so we would not force them to speak. They have an eating and a breathing mouth but not a speaking mouth. But they should still serve the church according to the grace that has been given to them. They can serve practically in something like vacuuming the meeting hall. All the saints will receive the benefit of their vacuuming. That is the “vacuuming” grace. We should illustrate the practical service to the saints in this way.
Some of the saints may be bothered about not speaking to such an extent that they dare not come to the meeting. They may not feel happy about coming to the meeting and may even feel somewhat shameful. They do not have that particular aspect of grace, so it is difficult for them to speak. But on the other hand, we have to make it clear that no one who has a mouth should take an excuse. You may be able to deceive people, but you cannot deceive the Lord. The Lord knows that you are very talkative. A brother may not speak in the meetings so much, but he may speak a lot to his wife.
We need to dwell upon this point to impress all the saints that all of them are stewards entrusted with some aspect of God’s grace. God’s grace is manifold. You cannot say that you have never been given grace. You have been given grace. You do not have the aspect of grace that Paul had or the aspect of grace that some of the elders have, but you surely have an aspect of grace. God has given you something.
The practical service in the church, such as maintaining the meeting hall by arranging the chairs, cleaning the windows, mowing the lawn, and trimming the trees, is the function of the members with grace. While you mow the lawn, you may minister grace to others who are cutting the grass with you.
If we hired janitors to clean the hall, that would create one kind of atmosphere. But if all the saints come to take care of this janitorial work in the meeting hall with much prayer, this makes a big difference. Then the hall becomes like the palanquin mentioned in the Song of Songs, built and prepared through the love of the virgins (3:9-10). The serving saints prepare the meeting hall to be the palanquin on which Christ can be carried. Such a meeting hall will surely be different from any kind of auditorium. When we enter into an auditorium, we have the sense of coldness. But when we come into our meeting hall, which has been prepared, vacuumed, and cleaned by so many virgins, the sense is different. We should not think that vacuuming the floor of the hall or cleaning even one window of the hall is a small thing.
In my hometown of Chefoo, one older brother was a manager of a big insurance company. He was wealthy, but every Saturday he came purposely just to clean five windows of the meeting hall. He told everybody to leave those five windows to him. Those five windows were the five “eyes” of the hall at the front. He kept those windows clean as crystal, and a number of saints were inspired and encouraged by his service.
The meeting hall of the church in Chefoo was greatly used by the Lord. One young man who was passing by the meeting hall on his bicycle read the verse that was posted on the outside of the hall. The verse was Acts 16:31: “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, you and your household.” He saw that verse, got off of his bicycle, and prayed and was saved by the Lord. After he came into the church life, he gave us this testimony.
One sister, who became a deaconess among us, was burdened to pray for the salvation of her husband, who was a good businessman in Shanghai. A brother among us was a friend of his, and he invited him to come to our gospel-preaching meeting on the second day of the new year. Because of his friendship with this brother and because of his wife, he felt that he could not reject this invitation. The night before he came to the meeting, he had a dream. In that dream he saw the meeting hall and a group of people at the entrance ushering people in. In his dream he entered into the meeting hall and walked up a stairway to the second floor. He saw his friend, who was a brother in the church, on the other stairway. He also saw the interior of the meeting hall. When he awoke the next morning, he was wondering about what he had dreamed. There was no need for his friend or his wife to urge him to go to the meeting, because he wanted to go to see if the hall matched what he had seen in his dream. When he went, he observed the meeting hall with the people outside the entrance ushering people in. He went inside the hall, and it was exactly according to what he had seen in his dream. He saw his friend come up the other stairway according to what he had dreamed. The hall was filled with people that day. After I preached the gospel in that meeting, he was the first one to stand up and pray to receive the Lord for his salvation.
My point in sharing this is that the hall in Chefoo was greatly used and blessed by the Lord because of the practical service poured out by so many saints. Every bit of that meeting hall was cleaned and prepared with much love and prayer. While the saints in Chefoo were cleaning the hall, they were praying. As someone cleaned a chair, he would pray, “Lord, I pray that whoever sits on this chair will be saved.” They prayed definitely in this way.
In my whole life I never saw a church life like the one in Chefoo. There were no great giants among us, but there was the service and functioning of all the small members. Even our children were looking for opportunities to serve the saints. While the gospel meetings were going on, some small rooms in the meeting hall were full of saints who were praying. They prayed until the meeting was over. That was a church fully in service. It was brought up and built up by every member functioning spontaneously. We have to let the saints know that the service of the church is the function of all the members with grace. This grace will reach people, nourish people, and even save people.
Grace is God embodied in Christ as our enjoyment (John 1:17b; 1 Cor. 15:10). Every member has to experience Christ as this grace. In whatever we do to serve in a practical way, grace is with us, and this grace will go out to reach others. This means that we minister grace to others in our service.
Regardless of what we do to serve practically, if we really do it in spirit, surely grace is with us. Then by our doing we will minister Christ as grace to others. First, we need to experience the grace of Christ in our own circumstances (2 Cor. 12:9). Then we minister grace to others through our service. Here we should stress that in order for us to experience Christ as grace, God always gives us certain kinds of circumstances. Sufferings and trials are often ordained by the Lord for us so that we may experience Christ as grace. So when Paul asked the Lord three times to remove his thorn in the flesh, the Lord would not do it. He said that His grace was sufficient for Paul. Under certain God-ordained circumstances we experience grace and accumulate grace to have a storage of grace in our Christian life. Then when we serve, we have something as grace to minister to others.
The goal of our service is not to accomplish things, even with something such as vacuuming the floor. Our goal is to infuse others with Christ as grace. We can infuse one another with grace while we are serving together. There should be no gossip, murmuring, criticism, or vain talk. Our talk should be our fellowship with grace to infuse one another. We need to have grace to minister to others. Actually, our goal is not to keep a clean hall but to minister Christ as grace to others.
